ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Review: Our First Z68 Motherboard
by Ian Cutress on May 11, 2011 3:13 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z68
3D Movement Algorithm Test
The first benchmark ran is actually one I have written. My full time job involves computational chemistry, so this first benchmark uses various algorithms for three-dimensional simulation and movement of independent particles. The algorithms both employ uniform random number generation or normal distribution random number generation, and vary in various amounts of trigonometric operations, conditional statements, generation and rejection, fused operations, etc. The benchmark runs through six algorithms for a specified number of particles and steps, and calculates the speed of each algorithm, then sums them all for a final score. This is an example of a real world situation that a computational scientist may find themselves in, rather than a pure synthetic benchmark. The benchmark is also parallel between particles simulated, and we test the single thread performance as well as the multi-threaded performance.
WinRAR x64 3.93
With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in the USB speed tests. WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.2
FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now. It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters. It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here. The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software. For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.
Sorenson Squeeze 6.0
Sorenson Squeeze is a professional video encoder, complete with a vast array of options. For this test, we convert 32 HD videos, each a minute long and approximately 42 MB in size, to WMV 512KBps format. Squeeze can encode multiple videos at once, one for each thread.
The ASUS does relatively well in our Computation bench suite, with an excellent Squeeze score. It's not the fastest board so far, but the difference between the slowest and fastest board in each test is only 3-9%, so for stock performance it's not something generally noticeable in day to day use.
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AnnihilatorX - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
Short answer, no...mczak - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
IMHO doesn't make a whole lot of sense overclocking the IGP but not the memory. The IGP could potentially benefit quite a bit.Markstar - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
Great review - makes me wish Anandtech had more of these (along with reviews low-capacity SSDs). :pShadowmaster625 - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
You guys need to stop giving Asus a free pass on their horrible website that you cant even download drivers from. And their horrible bios flashing tools that do not work. Never ever buy asus.sor - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
I'm actually kind of pissed at them myself. my P8P67Pro is a good board, but it has problems with SAS cards. They updated the BIOS to fix some compatibility issues, but my LSI card still does not work. It's a pretty well documented issue, and I think it's sort of ridiculous. I will consider buying a new Z68 of a different brand so I can use my LSI card if they don't have a BIOS fix soon.I didn't have any trouble flashing to the latest ASUS BIOS with a DOS boot cd.
The_Assimilator - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
You're using a piece of server hardware in a desktop board and you don't understand why it doesn't work? Did you perhaps think about that, or about verifying compatibility between the board and the card before purchasing?Don't blame the manufacturer for your own ignorance.
sor - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
Give me a break. That's the most ridiculous comment I've heard in a long while. You're the one showing your ignorance now.sor - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
Sorry, I can't let this go. I'm not sure why you decided to take an antagonstic tone, but apparently hardware is mysterious to you? What makes you think this is a server part? What makes you think it's unreasonable to believe that a card that adheres to the PCIe standard should be able to work in a PCIe slot? Why is it unreasonable to think that a card that worked in an old P35 desktop and my wife's older Q965 should work in my new P67 desktop? I can only imagine you read "SAS" and thought "ooh scary, that's the shiny server stuff, what is this guy thinking? I need to belittle him". Nevermind that they make windows XP drivers for it. Nevermind that I've installed over 300 LSI SAS cards in various hardware over the last year at work.Compatibility lists are not exhaustive, and are usually 6-12 months out of date. I still maintain that it's a reasonable expectation that a PCIe card shipping with desktop OS drivers, that works in every other motherboard I can get a hold of, should work in the PCIe slot of my new motherboard, and if not, it's the motherboard's fault.
L. - Thursday, May 12, 2011 - link
I would say, let's blame the manufacturers ... So many inconsistencies should not be tolerated, like for example some sticks not working on some boards etc.. or ridiculous PCB design leading to not being able to put a 'standard' modern cooler / ridiculous cooler design the other way around etc. etc.Pneumothorax - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
Does overclocking the IGP help Quicksync speeds? I don't think I've seen testing done on this so far.